Tag: News

The new Buxton Contemporary at the University of Melbourne’s College of the Arts will open on the 9th March, with the opening celebrations designed to coincide with the beginning of the 2018 university academic year. The inaugural exhibition, The Shape of Things to Come has been curated by Melissa Keys. It will feature works by more than 20 artists from the Buxton collection, and explores the various roles and agencies of the artist through culture, society and politics—as visionaries, storytellers, dissenters and alchemists. Included will be major works by Ricky Swallow, Emily Floyd, Hany Armanious and Mikala Dwyer among many others. Future programming will use the Michael Buxton Collection as a springboard to captivate and educate audiences on trends in contemporary art and connect current Australian contemporary practice to international developments. The University of Melbourne has announced that Ryan Johnston…

News from NETS Victoria Board of Management announcing the appointment of Adam Harding to the position of Chair. Adam Harding has been the Director of Horsham Regional Art Gallery (HRAG) since 2009 and oversaw their recent redevelopment. He has continued Horsham’s commitment to community engagement while reinterpreting the Gallery’s collection to focus on their three main areas of collecting; artworks and images of Horsham and the Wimmera, the Mack Jost Collection of Australian Art, and its nationally significant collection of Australian photography. Harding has been focusing on investigating modes of exhibition development and presentation that places HRAG and the Wimmera as a site of production and collaboration. “Hosting a NETS Victoria touring exhibition has always been a highlight for me, even back in the day when I was a curatorial assistant in Warrnambool, having the NETS Victoria install team on…

News from NAVA that their new Executive Director is Esther Anatloitis. From NAVA James Emmett, Chair of the NAVA Board, today announces Esther Anatolitis as the organisation’s next Executive Director. “It is with enthusiasm and pride for NAVA that I welcome Esther as the new Executive Director. Esther’s experience, profile and intellect makes her ideal to lead NAVA through its next chapter. At a personal level, I am very excited to start working with Esther soon. I particularly want to thank our acting co-directors, Brianna Munting and Penelope Benton, for their ongoing excellent management of NAVA during this transitional period. They are tremendous assets to the organisation.” “I am delighted that Esther will be joining NAVA,” said Senator Mitch Fifield, Minister for Communications and the Arts, “and look forward to continuing the very good working relationship we developed during her…

Sad and shocking news that the Castlemaine Art Museum is to close while the museum undertakes ‘a full review of operations and develop a blueprint for the future‘. The plan is to reopen in two years, in time for the 2019 Castlemaine Festival, but there seems to be some doubt as to whether this will happen. In the meantime six staff are out-of-work and the residents of Castlemaine (and beyond) have lost an important venue of cultural activity. The gallery is a member of Victoria’s Regional Art Gallery network, but it is not a government organisation and nor is it operated by the local council (though it does receive both local and state government funding). There are suggestions that without some level of government intervention and funding the museum may not have a future. Let’s hope a solution can be found,…

Two senior figures of the Australian gallery world received top honours in the recent 2017 Queen’s Birthday announcements. Judith Ryan, Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the visual arts, particularly to the museums and galleries sector, as a curator of Indigenous exhibitions, and as an author. Dr Anna Gray, former head of Australian art at the National Gallery of Australia was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant services to the visual arts, as a curator, scholar and historian, to Australian artists and to the promotion of cultural heritage.

The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines has announced that renowned curator Zara Stanhope (most recently Principal Curator and Head of Programmes, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) as the Gallery’s Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art. From QAGOMA ‘We are delighted to welcome Zara, who has over 20 years’ experience in curatorial and collection management in lead roles in art institutions in Australia and New Zealand,’ Mr Saines said. ‘Along with an expansive curatorial practice focusing on Australian, New Zealand and Pacific art, she will bring to the Gallery a great depth of strategic thinking, management experience and strong local and international networks. ‘As head of the Gallery’s dynamic Asian and Pacific art team, Zara will have responsibility for QAGOMA’s flagship exhibition series, The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and its world…

Wiradjuri artist, Amala Groom, has been elected unopposed as the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts Representative Director on the board of the NAVA. From NAVA Amala Groom is a New South Wales based conceptual artist whose practice is informed by, and reflects, Aboriginal methodologies, epistemologies and ways of being. Her work, as a form of passionate activism, delivers insightful commentary on contemporary society, politics and race relations. Groom said today, “It is both an honour and a privilege to have been nominated to hold the first dedicated Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Director’s position on the NAVA Board. I bring to the role both my personal expertise as a practitioner and my background in Aboriginal political and legal advocacy. My voice is one of the many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual artists, curators, writers,…

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) has announced that the recipient of the inaugural $80,000 Mordant Family VR Commission is Dr Christian Thompson, one of Australia’s leading visual artists. The commission, created in partnership with Catriona and Simon Mordant AM, the City of Melbourne and ACMI, builds on ACMI’s existing commissioning initiatives, and heralds a new era of artist support at ACMI for emerging platforms. The Mordant Family VR Commission will allow Thompsons’ practice to extend into the exciting medium of VR for the first time. Thompson is a contemporary artist whose work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity, and history; often referring to the relationships between these concepts and the environment. Formally trained as a sculptor, Thompson’s multidisciplinary practice engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance, and sound. His work focuses on the exploration of identity, sexuality,…

More big news in art history appointments from the University of Melbourne with Ian McLean announced as the inaugural Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History, based in the Art History Program at the University of Melbourne. Ian has published extensively on Australian art and particularly on Indigenous art. His books include Indigenous Archives: The Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal Art, with Darren Jorgensen (2017); Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art(2016); Double Desire: Transculturation and Indigenous art (2014); How Aborigines Invented the Idea of Contemporary Art (2011); White Aborigines Identity Politics in Australian Art (1998); and The Art of Gordon Bennett, with a chapter by Gordon Bennett (1996). He is a superb addition to the Art History Program, to Indigenous Studies, and to our School as a whole. The Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History is an endowed Chair, based in…

Martin Foley has announced major funding boost for the National Gallery of Victoria to build on its growth in recent years, saying that ‘Melbourne is renowned as the nation’s arts and cultural capital – and that’s in no small part because of the NGV.’ From the government press release Australia’s most popular gallery – and now one of the world’s most visited – is set to continue its success thanks to a funding boost in the Victorian Budget 2017/18. Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley today announced that the Andrews Labor Government will invest $28.7 million over two years to support the NGV to build on its incredible growth of recent years. Five years ago, NGV hosted 28 exhibitions per year – in 2016 that number rose to 49. This growth has encouraged more visits than ever, rising from just…

News from the University of Melbourne that art historian Professor Jennifer Milam has been appointed as the new Head of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She will take up the position from 1 January 2018. Jennifer is currently an ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Art History and Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Sydney. She has published articles on art, gardens and aesthetic ideas during the Enlightenment in journals such as The Art Bulletin, Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, Art History, Burlington Magazine, Eighteenth-Century Studies and Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Her books include studies of Rococo art and architecture, the French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and a co-edited volume on women artists and patrons in eighteenth-century Europe. Her previous roles at the University of Sydney include Chair of Department of Art History and…

Emily Cormack has been appointed to curate the TarraWarra Museum of Art Biennial 2018 (10 August – 4 November 2018). TarraWarra Director, Victoria Lynn, said the appointment of Cormack as sole curator for the TarraWarra Biennial 2018 was an exciting step for the Museum, and visitors can expect a great show. “Emily curated Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney last year to wide acclaim, and we look forward to her unique vision for the TarraWarra Biennial 2018,” Ms Lynn said. Based in Melbourne, Cormack has extensive experience in both curating and managing contemporary art exhibitions. She has previously curated major exhibitions for Gertrude Contemporary; Warrnambool Art Gallery; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell; Benalla Art Gallery; and the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, and co-curated shows for Artsonje Center Seoul, St. Paul’s St Gallery, Auckland and National University Museum (NUS),…

Yesterday the Greater Shepparton City Council announced that Denton Corker Marshall has won the architetural competition to build the new Shepparton Art Museum. From SAM The architectural competition for a new SAM (Shepparton Art Museum) and building jury recommendation was endorsed at the Ordinary Council Meeting on Tuesday 18 April following a comprehensive design competition spanning several months. The seven member expert jury report noted that the Denton Corker Marshall proposal was unanimously selected as the winning proposal for the Stage 2 Concept Design Competition after a robust and rigorous assessment of the five design concepts against the agreed criteria. The Denton Corker Marshall proposal stood out because it combined a powerful and relevant conceptual idea – well-resolved and compelling in its sculptural expression and detail – with a highly adaptable, functional, safe and efficient solution, according to the report. The…

One of the most significant artwork donations in the Memorial’s history, Cure for pain, by renowned Australian artist eX de Medici, is now on display at the Australian War Memorial. Donated by Erika Krebs-Woodward through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, Cure for pain is a detailed, multi-layered work that reflects the themes of mortality and equality in death throughout a century of Australian military history. At more than four metres long the painting is also the largest work produced by de Medici, who was appointed official war artist to the Solomon Islands in 2009 and is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Director of the Australian War Memorial Dr Brendan Nelson said the donation added to the Memorial’s world-class art collection, and that the work is an important tool in our evolving understanding of the Australian experience of war.…

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) has announced the $80,000 Mordant Family VR Commission, in partnership with Catriona and Simon Mordant AM, the City of Melbourne and ACMI, for new works by Australian artists and filmmakers. Building on ACMI’s existing commissioning initiatives, this program heralds a new era of artist support at ACMI for emerging platforms. The Mordant Family VR Commission invites visual artists to produce bold new and ambitious works using virtual reality (VR) and associated technology. Open to mid-career and established visual artists, the Mordant Family VR Commission supports gallery-based practitioners to move into VR, encouraging experimentation and enabling the creation of ambitious artworks that push the limits of technology to engage audiences in new ways. ACMI, through these partnerships, is providing unique opportunities in contemporary Australian film practice with this commission. ACMI Director and CEO Katrina…